260. The Method of Distinguishing Good and Evil (8)
The path in the cave gradually narrowed, and the heat and humidity became so dense that breathing was almost impossible. Fernandez frowned as he moved forward.
The only light sources were sporadic flows of magical energy. Of course, even such small light sources were enough for his night vision.
Soon, a door appeared. Carvings of spiders, centipedes, and other insects chasing each other were embossed on it. Above them, the language of Hell was roughly scrawled.
[We are the end of all things.]
[We are the beginning of creation.]
In the center of the circular arrangement of insect carvings was a small pattern depicting tumors and spores. Fernandez clenched his gauntleted fist and smashed the carving with all his might.
Bang! As the carving shattered, the magical formation embedded within activated. With a clanking sound, magical energy interlocked like gears and began to turn.
Soon, the carvings on the stone door began to change shape. A spider swallowed a centipede, the centipede chewed on a cockroach, and they twisted into complex knots. The inscription above them warped.
[All things run toward us.]
[We reach out to all things.]
[Call our name.]
It was a puzzle unique to a dungeon created by a High Demon. The door was sealed with riddles and metaphors. Solving it with magic would take too much time, and attempting to destroy it by force would be equally futile.
-Let’s play along.
Of course, he knew the inscription, but he didn’t want to utter the activation word needed to open the door. Fernandez clicked his tongue and said,
“Decay.”
-Clank!
From the destroyed carving, concentric circles spread out, and the stone door crumbled into dust. A wave of hot air rushed in. Almost simultaneously, sensation began to fade from the extremities of his limbs.
A simple yet cunning trap. To unlock the door’s seal, one must answer the riddle, and those who answer are cursed with a verbal curse.
Simple and cunning, but pathetic. Fernandez smirked and stepped forward. Emerging from the narrowing passage, the space beyond the stone door was a vast cavern.
The cavern was so large that the flow of air could be felt. Fluorescent mushrooms densely covered the high ceiling, and directly below them was a pile of dark red flesh.
Losing sensation made it difficult to maintain balance. Fernandez pulled the sword draped over his shoulder and glared ahead. Beyond the pile of flesh, red eyes glinted.
[Welcome to my garden, mortal.]
The demon whispered in a growling voice. Even though it spoke from a considerable distance, the sound echoed right in his ears.
[Are you startled? Or are you terrified, mortal? Is this your first time facing a god?]
Sssss, a sound like snakes slithering echoed from all directions. Beneath the faintly glowing mushrooms, a massive silhouette writhed.
It was a swarm of insects. Countless insects, rats, and snakes had coalesced into a moving form. Thud, thud, the creature’s appendages scattered along the walls and then regrouped repeatedly.
The entire cavern’s walls were lit with crimson eyes. The fluttering of insect wings and the clacking of mandibles created a bizarre dissonance.
[You priests dedicate your lives dreaming of welcoming a god. How pitiful. The god and cause you plead for cannot grant any aid in the face of true power. You’ve lived your entire life for an illusion.]
“At least that part is true.”
Fernandez stiffly loosened his neck and spoke. Due to the overlapping curses, even moving a finger required his full strength.
“I’ve lived my life for an illusion.”
But even if I were to live a thousand lives, I would do the same. Fernandez raised his blade.
“Are you afraid of me?”
[What?]
“Pathetic tricks and trivial traps. You’re afraid of me, Neharyphix.”
The silhouette in the darkness paused for a moment. Though it was impossible to read the demon’s emotions through its expression or voice, the emotion it felt was obvious. Panic. The demon was panicking.
[You know me……?]
“Of course. Neharyphix, Lord of Insects. The Defiled. The Untrustworthy. The Yellow-Green Calamity. Apostle of Decay. The Formless One. Did you think I only knew your name?”
[Who are you?]
“Wrong. The question you should have asked is not ‘who,’ but ‘why.’ And ‘how.’ Demon. And didn’t I already say it?”
The demon’s curse wasn’t physical. The curse responsible for sealing the stone chamber wasn’t powerful enough to exert physical influence.
Its curse was like what a frog experiences when facing a snake. It wasn’t the kind that directly affects the body or spirit. It was a curse of ‘perception.’
Its effect was singular. The body stiffens. And the atmosphere……. The simplest trick demons use to intimidate and corrupt mortals. ‘Atmosphere.’ Overwhelming presence, mixed with words. Even if you’re paralyzed and forced to watch helplessly……
What human could stand tall before that? This demon’s trap was cunning, but utterly vulgar. If Faijashi had witnessed this scene, he would’ve frowned and said:
-It lacks dignity.
A curse, by nature, should have dignity. No, magic should. A trap should be elegant. A meticulous scheme that doesn’t directly strike the enemy but overwhelms them should carry a corresponding nobility.
But this is lowly. This demon’s trap…… its tricks……. Its massive form? It’s like a pufferfish inflating itself in fear.
“My name is Flame.”
The conditions for a divine spell: prayer, invocation, miracle. Fernandez’s body was already imbued with invocation and miracle, so all that was needed was prayer. As Fernandez spoke, his stiffened heart pulsed once more.
-Thump.
The demon’s curse mixed into his bloodstream, along with the toxins emitted by the Ukrasia lineage of demons, gathered, scattered, and spread throughout his body. This was a plague of Hell, not easily purified.
But, it’s vulgar.
-Thump!
His heart beat strongly once more. Divine blood surged like a tidal wave, crushing the demon’s curse, shattering it into fragments that scattered across his skin, flesh, and veins.
[Foolish act……!]
The demon chuckled with a low laugh. Since it had cast the curse, it could clearly see what Fernandez was doing. Shattering the curse into fragments and scattering it across his body? That would only accelerate the curse’s effects.
There was no strength left.
Plague and toxins spread throughout his body, and red spots and black, dead tumors began to appear on Fernandez’s skin. The skin exposed beneath his armor twisted horribly, covered in writhing wrinkles.
It looked like the skin of an old man, crawling with wrinkles and oozing rotten fluids underneath.
[You’re running towards your own death. Go ahead. Your struggle is making me smile!]
“Keep laughing over there.”
The cracked voice twisted like that of an old man.
-Thump!
Though his entire body felt weak, as if it might collapse at any moment, his heart still beat fiercely. He needed to shred the curse finer, more meticulously!
Visualizing the fragments of the curse scattered like grains of sand in his mind, he crushed them even finer—
-A curse.
Faijashi laughed.
‘Magic.’
In the voice of an old man, with the skin and eyes of an old man. Wrinkled and diseased eyes. Still staring at the demon, yet the gloomy blue eyes shone like gems amidst it all.
-It’s merely a phenomenon created by regulating the flow of magical energy.
‘A fragmented curse is, in other words, a wedge that interferes with the body.’
A magical wedge is a technique that disrupts the opponent’s flow of magical energy, leading it to unintended results. It’s a fundamental skill in magical combat, requiring extreme precision.
And the plague caused by the curse. It can be imagined as a kind of interference technique that intervenes in the body’s mechanisms, causing unintended errors.
The reason no one has ever actually done this is simple. Everyone has only one body, so failing at this is no different from suicide.
But for some, the body is merely a consumable tool for their goals.
Trembling fingers, wrinkled and bleeding beneath the gauntlet, reached out towards the demon’s gaze. A weak, faltering gesture. Struggling…
[What are you doing…?]
“Pray.”
The fragments flowing through his blood had fully settled. It was no different from completing the curse himself. The curse of the plague had spread completely throughout his body. With every breath, rotten blood gurgled and dripped from his nose.
[What nonsense are you spouting? You’re going to die now. The curse is complete! Thanks to your own desperate struggle. Haha! How much longer do you think you have? Minutes? Seconds?]
“To any god, with any words, desperately.”
-Swish.
His fingers loosely grasped at the air, swaying weakly. The demon’s eyes began to smile as it watched. The demon’s mad voice filled the cavern, echoing loudly.
The fragmented curse had fully settled. His body was rapidly dying. The divine energy flowing through his blood faded, and now every part of his body except his heart began to shut down.
Divine energy rejects magical energy. Therefore.
A body without divine energy can encompass magical energy.
The curse of the plague is a kind of wedge that interferes with bodily functions through magical energy.
The reverse technique of a magical wedge is.
-My specialty.
With a snap, Fernandez’s hand grasped the air.
At the same time, his skin split, and black blood mist sprayed out around him.
* * *
The demon smirked as it watched the blood mist spraying from the small human’s body. Its eyes were connected to the vision of all its kin, so it could see the small human’s entire body without any blind spots.
The human was expelling rotten blood from its body in a final desperate act. If it had done this a few minutes earlier, it might have been different, but now it was nothing more than suicide.
With the curse already spread throughout its body, draining all the plague-ridden blood would at the very least result in death from excessive blood loss. Even if not, without removing the skin and bones entirely, the human couldn’t escape its grasp.
But within the thick blood mist, a pair of deep blue eyes flashed.
-Swish.
Weakly, a hand reached out through the mist, stirring the air. A frail gesture, but understandable. That was a beastman. A final move, and nothing more than a futile struggle before falling.
[Construction]. The beginning of all magic.
-Gurgle.
The scattered blood began to gather again. That wasn’t what he intended. The demon watched with interest. What was this human doing?
[Convergence]. The magical energy scattered around gathered according to the gesture. Each drop of blood contained a solidified curse, and the curse was magical energy. The dots connected, forming lines, and the lines drew a complex pattern in the air—
[A magical… formation?]
When ordinary mages draw a magical formation, they draw a flat diagram on the ground or an object. It’s a circuit that simplifies the essence of magic as much as possible. True magical circuits are three-dimensional in nature.
The hand twisted the air again. [Binding]. [Chain].
-Swish.
Another hand reached out to supplement the beastman, and yet another hand reached out to form another beastman. Six hands in total.
[Six… hands?]
At the same time, burning eyes multiplied beneath the blood mist. Six in total. The demon no longer saw the being hidden beneath the mist as human. A monster with six hands and three heads…!
The final beastman grasped the air. All six hands simultaneously. [Compass]. And—
The gathered blood mist concentrated into a single point, taking the form of a spear.
Before the shape could even be recognized as a blade—
“Fernandez’s… Crimson Spear.”
A flash of light pierced the demon’s head.
* * *
‘I developed your technique, so I can call this my signature spell.’
-Since you copied my Crimson Spear, I should name it after myself. This is just a copy of my Crimson Spear, after all.
‘Are you trying to say it’s self-replication? You’re me.’
-Haha, whatever.
Faijashi chuckled. Fernandez smiled contentedly and stepped forward. Though his mind was dizzy and his limbs trembled from the loss of rotten blood, Diemonica’s body began to restart as the demon’s control over his blood vessels disappeared.
It was a serious injury that would require days of rest, but it didn’t matter. He walked forward, step by step.
-Pssst…
Dust scattered in all directions. The remains of dead insects—wings, legs, jaw fragments—scattered like ashes.
The demon’s curse that had been eating away at his body. The fact that the demon had been controlling it meant that its power was connected to his body.
Following that chain would lead to the demon’s true body. The compass for this. A blade that would destroy only that one target, calculated from the enemy’s coordinates.
“What a pitiful sight.”
[Grrr…!!]
In the center of the cavern, a massive hole had been torn through the rotting pile of flesh. The aftermath of the Crimson Spear’s destruction. And deep within, beneath a small burrow formed by the pile of flesh, a crushed maggot squirmed.
Its true body. The King of Maggots, Nehariphixy. A demon that burrows into its host’s body, commands the insects it breeds, and spreads its influence.
Once the rotting pile of flesh was cleared away, its true body was insignificant. Fernandez smirked and raised his blade.
“Temple of the Gods, grant me your blessing.”
[Who are you!! How did you, how did you—!]
“The penalty for the accused is death.”
-Crash!
The blade severed the maggot’s neck and embedded itself into the ground.
The breeding ground personally cultivated by the Emperor had been destroyed, and the sovereign-class demon that had been manipulating it from behind the scenes had fallen. Now, only the Emperor himself remained.
The end was in sight. The end of this sticky, grueling battle.
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